* Posts by JWG

26 publicly visible posts • joined 17 Feb 2011

BOFH: Halon is not a rad new vape flavour

JWG

Very old BOFH comments

In the U.S., most shops discontinued using Halon because it was expensive, you could never test the system (because it was too expensive), and too many bosses actually read the warnings. CO2 is the best we have, though it won't stop a really big fire. However, most BOFHs, like myself, never got around to removing the warning stickers (way too much work). As for CRTs, the phosphorus coating on the screen is what was dangerous, not so the electron beam. Granted the number of millirads of exposure in one day wasn't that bad, but overtime, given that you were sitting about 3 feet from the screen, millirads began to build up. Then you'd go home an sit in front of another CRT for hours. They do make great targets and generate a unique noise when they implode. However, I'm not an alarmist, given the radon gas coming up from under the house, the constant bombardment of cosmic rays, various kinds of radiation from our local star, and U.S. physicians love of X-raying you for everything possible, if you haven't developed a cancer of any sort by age 40, you're usually good to go. As for the sales swamp creatures mentioned in the article, a 2 story drop isn't good enough, 4 stories is more fun. During my 40 years in IT (before it was called IT even) the H&S toads were never allowed in the server room as they were a danger to the servers as they could never be trusted not to press a power button or reset. They could look into the server room, if they could find an open space between the Halon warning stickers covering the glass door.

Grumpy Trump trumped, now he's got the hump: Muslim ban beaten back by appeals court

JWG

Ahh, guys, any of you ever hear of the Constitution?

Now I can understand that any of the comments here posted by citizens of the United Kingdom don't have the foggiest idea about the US Constitution, but any American citizens who've never read it, or if they did, didn't understand it (since it's written at a fifth grade reading level, (which leaves out most devout liberals, progressives, and/or Democrats) here's a clue: the US Constitution grants the President as the only decider as to what constitutes "National Security", not Congress, not the courts. Secondly, the laws on immigration which the Congress has passed over the years, have ceded to the President the authority and responsibility to carefully screen all those people who wish to enter our shores. Immigration is a privilege, not a right. The President has the right under the Cinstitution and immigration laws to refuse entry to anyone, for any reason, particularly if he/she deems such persons as potential risks to our national security. We have borders for a reason. SCOTUS has made many, many rulings over the years upholding these presidential powers. The Ninth Circuit (which has a lifetime average of being overturned by SCOTUS, even when the court was controlled by liberal justices, of over 85% - I wouldn't bet the farm that they won't be overturned, and for the umpteenth time, admonished by the Supremes for extreme judicial overreach). I'm not a big Trump supporter (it was "hose the nose" time fir the election), however, when SCOTUS gets this big sticking pile landed in their laps, their answer will likely be swift, pointed in reversing the Ninth, yet again. If you want to respond to this, please, read the constitution and 8USC1182 first before making any uniformed responses.

AT&T ready to trial latest attempt at pumping internet over power lines

JWG

Can anyone say "SCADA"?

Given the inherent insecurities of SCADA, they want to allow hackers even more access? Genius! They can take down the power grid and Internet at the same time" Brilliant!

H0LiCOW! Hubble's constant update paves way for 'new physics'

JWG

What "Standard Model"?

The major problem I have with concept of the "increasingly rapid expansion of the universe" is that it was increasingly rapidly expanding in the past (because that's all we can really see). As to what is happening right "now" is an unknown and unknowable. There is no possible way to place ourselves outside the universe to actually "observe" what's happening in "real time". The "Standard Model" is at best an educated guess, therefore the model is only as good as our observations, which are limited by "c" - the speed of light in a (kinda) vacuum, and our observations are based on limited data (about 50 years of real data compared the estimated age of the universe at 13.8 billion years). Physicists are also beginning to question Einstein's "cosmological constant". So, if the "Standard Model" is wrong, it's back to the drawing board, guys. It's should be obvious that we aren't as intelligent as we believe we are (that means you boffins as well) and therefore don't really have a good handle on how the universe actually works (or the climate either - just had to throw that one in).

Trump signs 'no privacy for non-Americans' order – what does that mean for rest of us?

JWG

Executive orders and SCOTUS

Just for you lot in the UK and any Americans who entered the public school system in the U.S. after 1976: The Supreme Court, in several rulings, have stated that the Bill of Rights and 14th Amendment protections extend to foreign nationals (legal or otherwise) inside our borders. That's applicable law. I won't bother enumerating all of those decisions (if you're too damned lazy to look them up or didn't learn it in school, sorry). Acts of Congress can only apply to citizens,resident aliens, and those with green cards; if you don't fall into one of 3 categories you're SOL. Executive orders only pertain to the Executive Branch departments and agencies under the control of the President and are only guidelines, not law (only Congress can pass laws, the Executive is the enforcement branch of those laws). The most recent former president used his "pen" far too liberally (most of what he did would have been undone by the courts and some already have). So far, our new President hasn't issued an Executive Order that appears to either unconstitutional or in opposition to any existing federal law. As for the snide comments about someone starting "WWIII", there are built-in safeguards which the new president has been advised about in detail. The President of the United States does not operate in a vacuum, he/she is not a dictator (despite the misinformation being bandied about by leftist libtards, who have absolutely no idea how the U.S. Government actually works, since they don't know the difference between a republic and a pure democracy).

It's official: Ejit – sorry – Ajit Pai is new FCC boss (he's the one who hates network neutrality)

JWG

Re: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

I'll see your experience and raise yòu COBOL coding in 1973 (I'm an original Bastard, kid). Prior to Ethernet we had IBM's token ring (disaster). As I said, net neutrality isn't. There is no such thing as a level playing field, so take off your libtard, rose colored glasses. And, no, I'm not a Trump supporter, I just believe net neutrality is a crock.

JWG

Re: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

Damned Autocorrect. Actually, Groucho was my favorite Marx.

JWG

"From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs."

I suspect the author of this piece believes whole-heartedly in the title quote from Karl Mark as well. Name calling is not good journalism, nor even good opinion writing. As your hero, the FORMER president, "The Big Zero" was fond of saying: " Elections have consequences." Yes, yes they do. As a retired IT Engineer (a real one, with a BSEE and everything), who worked at Microsoft, Intel, Xerox and Symantec (just to drop a few names) "net neutrality" ain't. It puts undue burdens on ISP's to make sure all have access to sell their wares, kind of like a socialist internet paradise. There is a real reason why the Internet continues to be the "Wild and Wooley West" of technology, is it supports real innovation and change at a more rapid pace than "net neutrality" would allow for. Small startups would become buried is all the noise. They have to be willing to pay for play. There never would have been room for a Hulu, Netflix or even a Google if net neutrality had been in place. So, please, just get over yourself and understand not all technologists agree with you. The "President Snowflake" was as uncalled for as my "Big Zero" reference to Mr. Obama. Besides, as far as I know, the U.K. doesn't have a First Amendment that fully protects you from unwanted law suits.

Welcome to the Wipe House: President Trump shreds climate change, privacy, LGBT policies on WhiteHouse.gov

JWG

Re: I'd offer the world an apology for the garbage that is "American First"

All you really need to do is apologize for being born in America, since you're ready to criticize a President who has only been in office for less than 4 days and 2 of them were on a weekend.

To all of you critical of our election, none of you, including this ass-clown, seem to understand what a "representative democracy" (read Republic) is and how it works. Let's make it simple, in a pure democracy everyone votes for a leader, who then takes over the government and runs it any way they want. In a Republic, you vote for representatives on the local and state level to go to central place to represent your interests, you also vote for someone who becomes the executive of the government, but who is bounded (like your representatives) to limitations on what they can do. Together they decide who will be the abitrators of these limits (SCOTUS). The document that binds all this together is called a "constitution", that sets the boundaries, in simple language, even a fifth grader can read and understand. Sprinkle some "Thou Shalt Not's" for the elected representatives (so they don't go nuts) and you have a "Constitutional Republic", unique in all the world, whose success has never been seen before, never been duplicated anywhere else in the world, and will survive even the worst Presidents and Congresses.

If you are a citizen of this "Great Experiment" in self rule, go ahead and bitch all you want. That sprinkling of "Thou Shalt Not's" tells Congress (and the Executive) that you have the right to peacefully protest and virtually say anything you want (the limitations are incitement to riot, treason and/or sedition or threatening the life of the Executive), that the media is free from censors, and that you can even go Congress with a list of your grievances (whether they'll actually listen to or read said grievances is fairly arbitrary on their part).

Now if you're still discontented, then you are free depart the "Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave" anytime you wish and declare your alliegence to any foreign power (by the way, Canada is part of the Commonwealth of Nations, and the head of government is Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, so you'd be trading away 240+ years of history to go back to the way things were before 1776). Now getting back in before the next election might be a bit of a problem. Once you give up your citizenship you have to go through the whole immigration system if you change your mind. Repatriation is not simple or easy.

As for the objection to "America First", then you need to bone up what all the other governments are telling their people (just subsitute "Canada" in that phrase and you have the stated policy of the Canadian government). The phrase is not "garbage" but actually has been the stated policy of the government of the United States of America since the founding of the Republic. We are not the "saviors" or "policemen" of the world, yet, somehow, the world expects us to be (even when they complain about it). However, if our government is acting in accordance with the Constitution, then the government is bound to look out for our interests first and screw the rest of the world. Then, if you still don't like it, the Canadian border is, depending on where you live, only, on average, 1,500 miles away at most, a day and a half to 2 day drive. Good luck and God Bless America.

Google gives up YOUR private data to US govt – but won't hand over its OWN staff personal info

JWG

Job opening: Needed, one copy editor. Send resume to "The Register".

Your sentence: "The OFCCP said that Google had had nine months to turn over all of the information it requested on wages paid between September 2014 and 2015." Redundant word.

Corrected sentence: "The OFCCP said that Google had nine months to turn over all of the information it requested on wages paid between September 2014 and 2015." Redundant word removed.

Alternate corrected sentence: "The OFCCP said that Google has had nine months to turn over all of the information it requested on wages paid between September 2014 and 2015." Slight tense change.

Where did you learn English?

Stripped of its galaxy, this black hole is wandering naked in the cosmos

JWG

Where is it now?

Okay, so this is where it was 4.5 billion years ago: WHERE THE EFF IS IT NOW?!?!? It's my running argument with science writers, they forget (probably on purpose), that "light years" mean "years ago" in terms of time, not just distance. So, if Chandra is just picking up the signal now, that "wandering supermassive blackhole" can be anywhere by now.

Were there any clues as to vector or velocity? I mean, these are important facts. In 4.5 billion years, it's like somewhere else by now - it may may even be heading heading for us!!!!!! It may sound picky, but things like where a supermassive blackhole wandering around the universe might be of some concern. In terms of the age of the universe, that's a fairly short time ago (about 1/3rd the age of the universe give or take).

When science writers "assume" even a technically savvy bunch of geeks, like most of El Reg's readers are, don't really know that distance (in light years) = time (in relation to the number of orbits our planet has made around its local star). When you look up at the night sky with your naked eyes (unless you need corrective lenses hanging off your nose) you can only see things that are, at most, a few thousand light years from where are (and they've been moving to, in relation to us). All you're seeing (even with the Hubble) are things as they were, that have already happened, you can't see the "now" of the universe. Betel Guese may have already blown up, that Wolf whatever number it is, has collapsed into a black hole and there's a huge a** gamma pulse headed for us (we won't see it coming, by the way, and if it does hit us, 90+% of everything on Earth goes bye-bye).

We are insignificant little, oversized barely microbes in this universe, and yet we think ourselves gods that can make big changes in nature. Get over yourselves. If a tiny hurricane can destroy Florida (another reason why I'm glad I didn't live there that long, one Hurricane Andrew was enough for me). Just remember species H. Sapiens has only been around about 200,000 years (+\- 10% fudge factor). Plus, we almost didn't survive the "bottle-neck" 70,000 years ago when there were only about 1,000 mating pairs of our species left, for God only knows what reason. The universe is 13.85 billion years old, and we barely understand more than .000000000000000001% of what makes it work (sorry, didn't count the Zero's so I can be off by one or two). Yes, it's fun and interesting looking at all that stuff that happened in the past, but it's in the PAST. It took us 400 years to figure out that tobacco was bad for us. That doesn't speak too well of our supposed intelligence.

Transcripts: The crunch courtroom showdown to halt ICANN's internet power grab

JWG

It ain't over until Congress and SCOTUS get their swings at it.

Yes, an appointee, whether or not they want to consciously admit to it, are beholden to the guy that put them there, and, admittedly, are of the same legal/political bent as the appointer. Plus, a Federal District Court is never the last stop in any legal question.

An appeal, and injunctive relief can be sought by the plaintiffs at the Circuit Court of Appeals, then, with everything returned to status quo, the Circuit in either in panel form or full-on enbanc, can rule on on the various aguements. The best argument the plaintiffs have is that the Executive, meaning the President, should have sought the advice and consent of Congress first as the "contract" could be considered as an international treaty, which requires the approval of the Senate, to abrogate. The other arguments do need to detailed more than the original complaint, but they can still be amended before the Circuit rules.

Failing at the Circuit level, for either plaintiffs or defendants, SCOTUS is the final arbiter. Technically, if the "contract" (a very dicey legal term to be used in this case) is found to be a "treaty", then SCOTUS, under Article 3 Section 2, as has been already determined by prior courts, is actually the court of "first hearing" (meaning, in terms of treaties, all lower courts can be bypassed and SCOTUS can hear the case directly, without having to drag it out in the inferior courts). Congress can, of itself, simply pass a law reaffirming the "contract" of ICANN, stopping any other authority to take control. Then the case would have to go through at least 2 circuits with opposing rulings in equity, then SCOTUS can take the case, but only if the "agreement" is called a "contract" and not a "treaty" (all three words have very specific meanings in in US legal parlance).

No matter how this turns out, the fight is long from over. The world may not like it, but American technology made the Internet possible, and therefore the country does have certain "property rights" to who or whom controls it. The last word has not been uttered and the "fat lady" is off stage.

BOFH: The case of the suspicious red icon

JWG

Scandalous!!!

I'm surprised that El Reg hasn't taken down the "racist" graphic at the top of this scandalous article demeaning a certain class of mentally impaired individuals with delusions of Trongodhood (I write, tongue firmly planted in cheek). Shame! Will shout the PC Police and demand a boycott of your racist technology newsletter (do I sound like a "good progressive" yet?). Black lives matter (as do brown, olive complexion, fair skinned (the melanin impaired), and PFY's of the world). That the Great Simon, God of all Bastards on the planet Bob, would allow his name to be attached to such a dispicable display shocks me to my core (no, that was my cattle prod going off in my back pocket). FTITCTAJ (fuck'em if they can't take a joke!). Sorry, I'll stop now (too busy LMFAO)...jwg

'Second Earth' exoplanet found right under our noses – just four light years away

JWG

Slight problem with habitability figure

Yes, our local star (Sun, Sol, Helios, whatever) will burn out in about 5Bilion years, however, as our star ages, it's getting hotter. The surface our dear little mudspeck will be a boiling dirt ball in about 500,000 years. The atmosphere will be long gone with all the water, the surface will then start to look like it did 4.5 billion years ago, molten. As a species (if H. Sapiens even exists that long) should have completely departed this planet by no later than 100,000 years from now. The equatorial regions will be the first to dry out, the rest a short time later. Better book it for Proxima with the next 10,000 years just to be on the safe side. Oh, yeh, I'm 65, so I ain't worry my head about it.

Sex ban IT man loses appeal – but judge labels order 'unpoliceable'

JWG

Never in America

I do feel sorry for all citizens of the U.K. and Europe in general. For all your talk about human rights, you have no constitution to protect you. Oh, you have a constitution that protects the government, just not its citizens. Here, in America, unless you happen to be a famous person, once a jury of your peers (not the same thing as your Peers), finds you "not guilty", case closed. Even if they find evidence afterwards, the 5th Amendment to the Constitution precludes being tried a second time for the same crime. However, it seems in the UK, one doesn't have to convicted of anything. When civil penalties are assessed in America, it's only after a criminal conviction, other wise it's a violation of the 6th Amendment. You guys really need a new constitution, one that tells the government where to go, not the other way round as you seem to have. My front door mat is one our popular ones: "You better have a warrant". We do not take our freedoms and liberties for granted, we tell the authorities they better have a warrant signed by a judge affirmed by oath and properly delivered, and then only after we have our lawyers present. You guys just seem to bend over and take it up the backside and time a PC looks cross eyed at you. Do you guys have any questions why we wanted our own government now?

WikiLeaks fights The Man by, er, publishing ordinary people's personal information

JWG

Ahhh, you missed the point.

The DNC (that should be the SDNC -Socialist Democratic National Committee) is, one, not supposed to side with any one candidate during the silly.. Err, primary season and, two, not be so bloody blatant when they do it. The emails revealed that, as we put it, the "fix was in". Now if Mrs. HRC was expecting the left of her party to vote for her, she will likely be disappointed the night of 8 November, 2016, when ballots are counted with thousands, possibly a couple of million, write in votes for Senator Sanders for president. That number could cost her the election. Now, of course I'm encouraging all my Democratic friend (yes, I meant "friend") to do that, since I'm a Republican and we tend to vote a straight party ticket even if we have to hold our noses when marking the ballot for "The Donald".

As for correcting someone's use of English, we on the Western side of the Atlantic Puddle (I live next to the Pacific OCEAN), kicked the English out of the Colonies some 200+ years ago, and we stopped speaking or writing your language in favor of American, where we have a "sense of humor" (not "humour"), we watch programs on our televisions (not "programmes on our telly"), and we only have 2 major political parties, not the dozen or so you have to contend with. "Math" is an acceptable contraction for "mathematics" according to "The Webster's New World Dictionary". But, of course, our friends to the north in Canada, have messed up your language beyond repair (and everything has to be in both English and... Ahh, French). Have a word with Ms. Windsor, she's still the Head of State for Canada. No, we don't bow to royalty, only the current inhabitant of the White House, the Big Zero.

However, I do have one English title behind my name, BOFH and proud of it!

Australian Information Industries Association*: you're not the future of democracy, so please shut up

JWG

How to do it in America

I could envision it in America for major elections. Each state would require registration with legal state issued ID, at the same time you would have either opt-in for electronic voting or not, you'd then have to submit at state workstation an individual password (16 characters, upper/lower case required no proper names [not even Fido's name], along with special characters like!?*#%!?, and at least 5 non-consecutive numbers), plus a second set of at least 5 challenge questions. You would be issued a specific login ID. That done,you'd go home. No more than a week prior to the election, each registered voter in your household would receive a special USB ROM chip, which will encrypt your individual eballot, to plug into your computer when you're ready to vote. Once you hit "Done", your electronic ballot would be transmitted to the state's election system, logged, and validated with a success or failure response sent back (rather like how we efile our taxes), the USB encryption chip would then be logged and no longer useable by anyone. If accepted, you're done. If you screwed up, you'd have to wait until Election Day and go you to local voting precinct to vote there because you're too stupid to follow simple instructions and have the memory caoacity of a fruit fly. Given 50 states, with 50 different rules for registering and voting, with approximately 200 million possible voters in America, this proposal looks good on paper, but enacting the laws in 50 legislatures, getting the USB plug that would cost about $10 each, plus the voter would have to meet certain hardware minimum requirements (PC's only, as a 30 iPad plug would be even costlier), I figure there's only about 10,000 voters who could use this system, all of them bring BOFH's. The other 200 million (minus 10k) would be stuck with the way we vote now, because their machines would likely be some hackers bot, underpowered (because of all the malware running) and are too stupid to be allowed to vote in the first place. Again, I'm only proposing a USA eballot system, not one for worldwide use.

Don't – don't – install iOS 9.3 on your iPad 2: Upgrade bricks slabs

JWG

Not a prob

Upgraded both my white 16GB wifi only and white 64GB WIFI/AT&T without any issue, except I had to reset my wifi router because it stopped recognizing both of my iPads, but not my Windows Box on a direct connect. Once the rest was done it was fine. This might resolve the some are seeing, and you can do it either before you start install or during, then they'll recognize the network. As an engineer of 40+ years (now, thankfully, retired) it became evident to me that for some odd reason the oPads weren't recognizing my router, so that's why the reset worked. Pass it along if you wish...jwg

Blocking out the Sun won't fix climate change – but it could buy us time

JWG

Escapee from UK asylum... What? Cambridge? Same thing.

Blocking the sun, shutting down all coal fired anything, whatever... The climate is changing no matter if we do anything or not. We are puny little microbes on the surface of the planet and have extremely little impact on anything, except killing each other. "Human caused" anything is the greatest scam ever pulled, and it's making all those people who've dumped money into green things rich (even if it fails, the government will bail you out with a tidy profit). The "scientist" who started the whole thing was from a little known UK college (thank you too much Brits), who's now a rich man, able to give up his day job, jet around the worked (polluting all the way) and we're paying for it. Then there's our ex-veep, Bill Clinton's evil assistant, Algore. A BS in journalism is all he can boast (plus being a failed politician and totally corrupt at that. The raw data does not support anything but normal fluctuations in the general climate on Earth, but not global warming (same as that Russian back in the 60s saying we were headed to another ice age - FAIL!" Cow flatuance, coal, nuclear energy, aerosol cans, and the list goes on. "Stop it, for God's Sake, stop it" to quote MK Gandhi. 15 years of flat temps, the Antartic ice sheet is growing in leaps and bounds (which offsets the Artic losses by an order of magnitude). You might as blame us for CMEs, the shift of the Earth's magnetic poles, and the eventual demise of Pokemon (I threw that one in for grins and giggles). The last one, thankfull, is the only one that can be blamed on humans, even though it's children finally getting bored with it. Climate science, at best, is about 40 years old, not long enough to have enough data on anything. If we can't control the weather, his in the name of fucking Hell do you expect to control climate change, which if far more complex that weather and is measured in 10s of thousands of years? Please, grow a brain, because the on tiny one you've got will believe anything, particularly if it's on the Internet.

Reg reader achieves bronze badge, goes directly to jail

JWG

And I'm supposed to care - why? To be honest, most of my comments wouldn't make it past the foul language censors (I've been in IT since prehistoric times, the 1970s when I was a COBOL and RPG III guru (God, I'm old). Starting in the early '80's, moved into infrastructure (which didn't exist as a title for another 20 years). I am one of the Original Bastards in America, though my real name is unknown, being I'm an autistic and didn't remain long enough at any company to be known to anyone. Never could find that one spot I could have survived in. I, however, as a contractor, did many projects at Microsoft, Intel, Xerox, Symantec, and more than a few contract companies that have gone away over the years. Lots of great experience: CPU Debug Engineer, Software Test Engineer, Senior Technical Project Manager, Senior Customer Service Engineer (Third tier). There were odds and ends as fill-in BOFH, App Dev, etc. Oh, you were talking about Bronze Badges - We ain't got no stinkin' badges...

Obama's IT reforms saved about one per cent of spending

JWG

Security of IT

Amateurs! Of that's been the whole problem with the O Admin.

Everyone in the federal IT system, from lowly hell desk dweebs to gigantodreeb managers are the largest concentration of idiots imaginable. They barely know to turn on a machine, let alone fix one, and their network is even worse (should I bring up HealthCare.gov?). They need to find a techocrat bigwig (currently on early retirement at 35), consolidate all IT activities under Cabinet Level Secretary. Then let him find the best geeks they can buy (with free rides on Military transports). Of course there would have to security vetting (previous work with hacktavists like Anonymous should not be a bar, rather encourage them to target Russia, China, Iran, and anyone else we're hacked off with (or who've been hacking us with impunity). You want the best, right? But don't farm it out to contractors (Snowden comes to mind) and by making them government employees it easier to lock them up. The only problem with my plan is all the current contractors and their huge donations to political campaigns (can we say payola?). It doesn't help that no one in Congress, the White House, or SCOTUS that have an inkling of a hint of a vague unsettled hunch about any more technical than flipping on a light switch (even with a 200 page manual with crayon coloring pages).

Oh, well, just a passing moment of sanity. Won't try that again.

Billionaire dumps Apple stock because Steve Jobs was 'really awful' guy

JWG

Jerk commenting on a jerk

I'm sorry, I didn't know there were any hedge fund managers who weren't complete MBA Jerks.. What Robertson is perhaps unaware of, either consciously or unconsciously, is that the late Mr. Jobs did leave behind a "master plan" or list of projects to follow on with after his death. It is, however, my opinion that a company that can't survive, even prosper, the death of its founder, doesn't deserve to survive. Jobs didn't invent the Mac, the iPod, the iPhone or the iPad. Engineers did all that. All Mr. Jobs had was vision and ideas. There will never be another Steve Jobs, thank God, but there are gifted, talented people out there that can "replace" him. One will be found, taking Apple in a new direction. But it will take on with just one of Steve's talents - the lack of understanding of the word "no". I don't know If Tim is that guy (thus far he hasn't shown that ability). But someone will. Maybe they might give Woz the Job's job and see what he can do with it., it doubt it, it's just an idea.

In defence of defenestration: Microsoft MUST hurl Gates from the Windows

JWG

Good bye, Mr. Anderson... If we're going to use Matrix quotes.

Ballmer was a great PC salesman and nothing more. If it hadn't been for the non-Hodgkins, Paul Allen would have left just a year or 2 later anyway. He'd completely lost interest in developing anything. He was rich beyond belief, so he had to do something completely different and follow his real passions. Same with Waz at Apple.

Gates never had he vision of Jobs, which why Steve eventually won. Microsoft needs to be broken into 3 separate companies, one for phone/tablet OS, one for gaming plarform and the third for hardware to their own OS and others on. May just 2 then. I contracted there in 2008 when all the "changes" were happening. Everyone was confused and 5 years later it's even worse.

There is no good answer. They've been completely out maneuvered at every turn, so call in the priest, deliver last rites and last one out turns off the lights. What they need is a Gate/Jobs young guy to come in and rip the place apart and from out of the resulting chaos (and expenditure of large amounts of capital which they still have) refocus on something entirely new. What that it, I have fracking idea. I'm of the Gates/Jobs generation -to fracking old and retired to care. But there has to be some young brain out there that can remake Microsoft.

Good luck and good night, Mrs. Mcgillicutty, wherever you are...

Symantec crowdsources buzzword bingo to name product

JWG

Lazy marketing

As a former Symantec engineer, it looks like marketing has run out of ideas and are hoping one of you will save their bacon... That's how we got Windows 7 instead of some name like "Vista" (oh, yeh, that was winner.)

Greenpeace spies soot lining in cloud data centers

JWG
FAIL

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.- Albert Einstein

I did some calculating. There is 1 coal fired plant in Oregon, 7 natural gas fired generators,

3 wind farms, and 18 hydro plants. How anyone can come up with 63% of the energy coming from the one coal plant in Hermiston, with both the John Day and the The Dalles Dams closer to Prineville, is beyond me. The amount the facility would use from coal fired would be much closer 5-6% , not 63%.

I could be wrong, but most the power generation in Oregon comes from hydro, not coal, natural gas or wind. Every one needs to recheck their math.

Knife-waving knob nabs fat stack of jazz mags

JWG
Alert

Surrey... Surrey... Where have I heard that name before?

Isn't Surrey where Little Whinging is located? Perhaps this is all the work of Dark Wizards unknown (except for the taking of the porn.)